Nueces County jury sentences teenager to 15 years for intoxication manslaughter

Michael Aguirre, 19, was found guilty Thursday of intoxication manslaughter and driving while intoxicated with a child

CORPUS CHRISTI - A Nueces County jury sentenced a Corpus Christi man to 15 years in prison Friday for a 2011 vehicle crash that killed a 45-year-old man.

Michael Aguirre, 19, was found guilty Thursday of intoxication manslaughter and driving while intoxicated with a child. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison on the manslaughter charge and two years in a state jail for the DWI with a child charge. The terms will run concurrently.

Aguirre also was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine for each charge. He was accused of killing David Garner Jr. in June 2011. Aguirre had his 19-year-old wife and 8-month-old daughter in the vehicle at the time of the crash.

Aguirre faced as many as 20 years in prison on the intoxication charge and as many as two years in state jail for the DWI charge. Prosecutors recommended the maximum.

Jurors deliberated about 45 minutes Thursday before reaching the verdicts. They deliberated about two and a half hours before determining his sentence.

During the trial's punishment phase Thursday, Aguirre testified that he wanted to avoid the trial and plead guilty because it would have been easier on Garner's family, but his attorney convinced him otherwise.

Garner's mother described for jurors how she learned of her son's death from a police officer and said the loss is devastating.

Police responded to the wreck about 7:15 a.m. June 5, 2011, in the 5400 block of South Padre Island Drive and found that Garner's black 2008 Mazda 5 was struck from behind by a white 2004 Cadillac Escalade.

Aguirre was driving at a high rate of speed when the vehicle hit Garner's car and pushed it into a concrete barrier, police said. The Escalade also struck the barrier.

Aguirre and his wife, Barbara, tried to leave the scene but were stopped by other drivers, police said.